Trump Administration Pretends to Care About Health Insurance in Order to Restrict Immigration

The Trump administration’s latest attack on immigrants uses medical care as a tool to deny visas to all but the wealthiest applicants. In a proclamation issued last Friday, October 4, the government announced that it will require those seeking a visa to enter the United States to prove that they will have health insurance within thirty days of arrival or the funds to pay for medical expenses. The proclamation, which is set to take effect on November 3, will primarily affect immigrants sponsored by family members and recipients of the diversity visa lottery program. Experts estimate that it could bar 375,000 people each year who qualify under the current system, blocking nearly two-thirds of those who apply for green cards from abroad.

The proclamation doesn’t outline standards for deciding how those seeking visas would satisfactorily demonstrate financial means; it will be up to consular officials to make the determination. But it does specify the types of insurance that will count toward the requirement that an immigrant have health insurance once in the United States. Unsubsidized marketplace (ACA) plans, employer-provided coverage, short-term plans, association health plans, and catastrophic plans will all count; Medicaid and subsidized marketplace plans will not.

As its rationale, the Trump administration cites high uninsured rates among immigrants, which result in care for which hospitals and providers go uncompensated; these costs, it claims, are passed on to “the American people” in the form of higher taxes, higher premiums, and higher costs for medical care. In fact, studies have not shown that the costs of uncompensated care result in higher insurance premiums for the insured. Hospitals bear much of the burden, with the federal government picking up most of the tab.

It is true that immigrants are more likely than citizens to lack health insurance: 23% vs. 8% for non-elderly, legal immigrants, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. But immigrants, overall, have less access to health insurance than those born in the US. Legal immigrants, for instance, are subject to a five-year waiting period for Medicaid.

The Trump administration’s ruse of using health insurance to restrict legal immigration is completely nonsensical as a strategy to hold down costs. It is, instead, a barely disguised attack on people of color and the working and middle classes. If the administration were genuinely interested in reducing the cost of health care, it would stop its constant undermining of the Affordable Care Act and its support of states’ efforts to trim Medicaid rolls by, among other things, imposing additional eligibility requirements. States that expanded Medicaid under the ACA actually had a greater decline in uncompensated care costs and a reduced risk of hospital closures than non-expansion states.

Medical care and insurance premiums are undoubtedly too expensive, and the Affordable Care Act does nothing to address escalating costs. Due to political pressure, the Affordable Care Act passed without a public option. Instead, twenty-three non-profit coops (Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans) were supposed to serve as a check on prices. The coops ran into financial trouble almost immediately. Many set their premium prices too low and found themselves with large pools of patients who needed more expensive care than anticipated, while others had trouble attracting subscribers. $10 billion in grants promised by lawmakers turned into $3.8 in loans several years later. By early 2019, nineteen of the original twenty-three coops had failed, leaving just four in operation. Furthermore, while the coops might have served as a control on the price of insurance premiums, they did nothing to address directly the cost of care: medications, diagnostic tests, surgical procedures, emergency room services, and so on.

The solution is not to force immigrants to pay out-of-pocket for needed care or to purchase bare-bones coverage to meet an arbitrary governmental requirement. Rather, the goal should be to reduce costs and expand access to affordable coverage so people who need medical attention can get it at rates they can actually pay. If the real problem is high costs and high prices, then the administration should work on bringing these down for everyone. Blaming immigrants for the failures of our health care system is neither a sound public health strategy nor a viable immigration policy.

An End to HIV by 2030?

In his recent State of the Union speech, President Trump made an ambitious pledge in the area of public health: to eliminate the HIV epidemic in the United States within ten years. The actual plan, released that week by the Department of Health and Human Services, aims to end new HIV infections by 2030. HHS proposes to do this by targeting “geographic hotspots”: forty-eight counties, plus Washington, DC and San Juan, Puerto Rico that account for more than 50 percent of new HIV diagnoses, as well as seven states with high rates of infection in rural areas. The plan calls for diagnosing the disease quickly, starting treatment as soon after as possible afterward, and increasing the use of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), a medication for people at high risk for HIV.

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Researchers and HIV/AIDS advocates call the initiative aggressive but achievable, as all of its medical components—diagnostics, anti-retroviral therapies, PrEP—have been available for some time. However, many remain skeptical of the Trump administration’s actual level of commitment to ending HIV, given its ongoing assault on LGBTQ communities, immigrants, and people of color, populations with high rates of new infections. Furthermore, the administration has continually attacked and undermined the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid, making health insurance both more difficult to obtain and more expensive to use. Premiums continue to rise, and seven states have implemented work requirements that have had the effect of kicking people off Medicaid, with applications pending in eight more.

As both a social and a medical endeavor, public health must engage communities, where local norms and cultural attitudes can affect disease transmission. Take for example the recent measles outbreak in Clark County, Washington, a state that allows exemptions to mandatory vaccinations for medical, religious, and philosophical reasons. As NPR has reported, some schools have vaccination rates under 40 percent, rather than the 90 percent or so required for a community to be protected. Parents who are responding to inaccuracies and rumors on social media and from other parents forego vaccinations for their children, placing entire communities at risk. Combating such fears requires not only a tightening of applicable laws, but also a campaign to address vaccine misinformation in locations where it can itself spread like a virus.

If the Trump administration is truly committed to eradicating HIV, then it must combine social with medical approaches. It’s not enough simply to diagnose more people and subsidize new PrEP prescriptions. Resources must also go toward affordable housing, nutrition assistance, and counseling to ensure that patients are emotionally supported and are adhering to regimes of treatment. Stigma and discrimination remain obstacles to meaningful care in affected populations; any far-reaching plan must tackle social attitudes among those affected, including families and healthcare providers. We may have in hand the medical tools to end new transmissions, but success will not rest on these components alone. The Trump administration must understand this if it genuinely wants to succeed in its goal.

Are You Worthy of Your Health Care? State Medicaid Directors May Soon Get to Decide

This week the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services approved New Hampshire’s bid to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients, becoming the fourth such state under new guidelines issued at the beginning of the year by the Trump Administration. Kentucky, Arkansas, and Indiana have also received approval to add work requirements, while applications are pending in six additional states: Arizona, Utah, Kansas, Mississippi, Wisconsin, and Maine.

These types of waivers, which fall under Section 1115 of the Social Security Act, are supposed to give states the flexibility to test local approaches that may differ from federal Medicaid rules, but share the goal of advancing the overall aims of the Medicaid program. States have used them for a variety of purposes in the past, including implementing systems of managed care, expanding coverage to non-traditional Medicaid populations, and extending health care coverage during an emergency. Under the newly approved waivers, Medicaid recipients will be required to work or participate in “community engagement” activities (including job training, caregiving, or volunteering) for 20 hours per week. Those who are pregnant or have disabilities would be exempt. In some states, such as Kentucky, the work rules would only apply to the population that receives Medicaid under the expanded eligibility rules of the Affordable Care Act. In other states, notably Kansas, the rules would affect all beneficiaries, including those who are very poor. Other states have Section 1115 waivers pending to require drug testing for Medicaid recipients, impose lifetime limits on coverage, and impose premiums with disenrollment for nonpayment; such waivers have never been approved, but that may change in the current political climate.

Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

Since the Trump administration took office in 2017, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have altered the criteria for considering Section 1115 waivers. In 2015, during the Obama years, the language focused on increasing and strengthening coverage and health outcomes for low-income individuals and improving provider networks for Medicaid beneficiaries. By November 2017, the guidelines had been revised to underscore new priorities: “responsible decision-making,” “upward mobility,” “greater independence,” and “strengthen[ing] beneficiary engagement in their personal healthcare plan.”

This language of empowerment reflects a fundamental shift in ideology, from providing crucial health coverage to a disadvantaged population to trying to ensure that people are not, as the saying goes, “getting something for nothing.” The new guidelines glorify the idea of work for work’s sake, linking employment with increased income and better health outcomes, while decrying what CMS director Seema Verma has called “the soft bigotry of low expectations” that keeps people trapped in poverty. Critics have pointed out that nearly 60 percent of non-disabled Medicaid recipients who are able to work already do; imposing work requirements will do nothing to create jobs, and will simply enact punitive measures on those who do not have them. The burden of reporting one’s work hours weekly will create additional hurdles for Medicaid recipients, many of whom already face multiple challenges, while the increased administrative costs may not result in any savings for state and local governments. The new requirements don’t account for those with unstable and unpredictable hours, who may average 80 hours per month but work fewer than 20 hours during some weeks. Moreover, losing one’s health insurance could make it more difficult for someone to find and keep a job. It’s not much of a surprise that an individual with steady employment will have more income, be healthier overall and less likely to suffer from depression than someone who is unemployed. But it’s not at all clear that work itself always produces these results, or if those who are healthier overall are also better equipped to find and keep such jobs.

Previous administrations have rejected Section 1115 waivers that were not consistent with the original aim of the Medicaid program, which is to expand medical coverage to eligible populations. The new work requirements, which will reduce Medicaid rolls by making it harder and more onerous for people to keep their coverage, clearly conflict with this goal. In approving the requirements, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services is defining health care as something that must be earned through a display of worthiness. It imposes a moral imperative on the provision of health care, forcing recipients to prove their fitness to receive government benefits by behaving in ways that are state-sanctioned: working, not doing drugs, demonstrating personal responsibility. The underlying (and familiar) assumption is that poverty is a behavioral issue that can be fixed by punishing abnormal comportment. But the problem is far deeper and more complicated. Medicaid work requirements are both overly punitive and a result of faulty logic. Making it more difficult for low-income individuals to maintain health coverage will not solve poverty. Instead, it will increase inequality, further disadvantage an already vulnerable population, and endanger public health. 

Graham-Cassidy Bill Brings Republican Callousness to New Heights

The Republicans’ last-ditch effort to demolish the Affordable Care Act is so abominable it makes previous attempts look practically benign by comparison.

The Graham-Cassidy bill, introduced by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA), retains all of the cruelty of earlier legislation, and then adds some more. Specifically, it would:

  • Convert funding for Medicaid, a program that covers over 70 million Americans, from an open-ended entitlement to a block grant to states.

  • Allow states to impose work requirements for Medicaid recipients.

  • Eliminate the subsidies that make insurance and health care services affordable for low-income individuals.

  • Allow states to waive coverage of essential health benefits, such as mental health care, prescription drug coverage, and maternity care.

  • Allow states to end protections for pre-existing conditions. Insurance companies would be free to charge different rates to healthy and sick people.

  • Eliminate lifetime caps on coverage.

  • End the employer and individual mandates, retroactive to 2016.

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The Graham-Cassidy bill would take all the federal money that currently funds insurance subsidies and the Medicaid expansion under the ACA and dole it out to states according to a complex formula, redistributing it in a way that the bill’s sponsors claim is more fair. However, it would shift money from states that expanded Medicaid to those that didn’t. California, for instance, would get $27.8 billion less in federal funding in 2026, while Texas, a non-expansion state, would get $8.2 billion more. States would have to spend these funds on health-related costs, but not necessarily to help lower-income people purchase insurance. There would be less money available overall; funding would be 34% lower by 2026 than under current ACA rules, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. All of the grants would end in 2027, putting health insurance for millions in grave jeopardy, unless Congress decided to appropriate more money.

Converting Medicaid disbursement from the system now in place to a block grant to states would be a monumental shift. Under current rules, Medicaid is an open-ended entitlement, meaning that funding expands if more people become eligible. This is crucial during economic downturns or in public health emergencies. If federal funding for Medicaid is capped and inflexible, then states would be forced to make up any budget shortfall. This could result in cost-cutting measures, such as limiting eligibility or reducing benefits.

Earlier this summer, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that a straight repeal of the Affordable Care Act would result in an additional 32 million uninsured by 2026. If Graham-Cassidy passes, the final toll could be even higher, due to the harshness of the Medicaid cuts. Those who do maintain coverage could face sky-high premiums and deductibles for plans that cover very little. Graham-Cassidy might be the fulfillment of a longstanding Republican pledge to repeal Obamacare, but it would cause untold pain and suffering for millions of vulnerable Americans.